Past Events

Past Events

IFMR LEAD is pleased to announce its continued association with the Inclusive Finance India Summit, as Technical Partner for the 2017 Summit. A global platform for deliberating on issues related to financial inclusion, financial education and financial stability, the Summit is among the largest gatherings of financial inclusion experts and stakeholders in India. As Technical Partner, IFMR LEAD developed the following series of factsheets on the various session themes:

October 4, 2016: IFMR LEAD in collaboration with UNESCO jointly hosted a workshop on “Mainstreaming Traditional Knowledge (TK) to support Climate Change Adaptation Policies” in Savera Hotel, Chennai. Fully recognizing the importance of traditional knowledge (TK) or Indigenous Knowledge (IK), now commonly referred as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and its invaluable role in adaptation to climate change (CC) variations, the workshop brought together around 25 experts from Government/research institutions and NGOs. The objective of the workshop was to present and receive inputs to strengthen the role of TK in climate change adaptation by integrating TK in climate research and resource planning and to explore strategies to incorporate TK into climate change assessments, policy and adaptation efforts at local level including gender concerns.

IFMR LEAD recently collaborated with Access Assist as technical partner for the Inclusive Finance India Summit 2016 – A global platform for deliberating on issues related to financial inclusion, financial education and financial stability. The summit convened important stakeholders from the public and private sector to discuss key challenges with respect to inclusive finance, and provided a platform for exchange of ideas and best practices. As Technical Partner, IFMR LEAD developed the following series of factsheets on the various session themes:

Please find below fact sheets for some of the sessions conducted at the Summit-

With the growing importance of evidence in the field of development, competency in research methods has emerged as a vital skillset in the repertoire of professionals. The ‘Certificate Programme on Frontiers of Development Research’, conducted by the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), is a six-day foundation programme designed to provide researchers and practitioners rigorous hands-on training in research methods and techniques. The broad objectives of the programme are to enrich participants’ understanding of contemporary development issues and build their capacity to address these issues through rigorous research.

On July 20th, 2016, IFMR LEAD co-hosted a policy workshop along with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and CAFRAL, with support from the Citi Foundation. The one-day policy workshop ‘Evidence in Financial Inclusion: New Findings and their Applications’ saw participation from over 50 senior policymakers, experts from the field of banking and finance, and academia, and other key stakeholders in the financial inclusion space. Participants deliberated on recent evidence from research on digitizing financial products and services, and discussed potential areas of collaboration between research, policy, and practice.

IFMR LEAD, in collaboration with J.P. Morgan, has initiated a research project “Process Mapping and Evaluation of Digital Financial Services in India'”– a comprehensive supply and demand-side assessment of the DFS sector. As part of the project, the two organizations successfully co-hosted a roundtable meeting of regulators, financial service providers and technology service providers on 27th May 2016, in Mumbai, India. The roundtable served as a platform for knowledge sharing and exploring synergies between various stakeholders. While digital finance has emerged as a rapidly growing and game-changing area of financially services, there is limited evidence on how it works. During this nascent stage of expansion, exploratory research and stakeholder engagement has the potential to provide valuable insights on the drivers that will influence the future direction of digital inclusion in India.

Rethinking Financial Inclusion ,a five-and a-half day executive program at Harvard Kennedy School, will explore frontier issues in finance for the underserved and address challenges faced by both emerging and developed countries. Led by Harvard professors with years of experience evaluating and designing financial innovations, this program combines an evidence-based approach with theoretical insights to help leaders like you understand the market for finance and client needs, as well as design financial products to meet those needs. The program is developed by Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) program at Harvard Kennedy School’sresearch faculty for leaders in the financial inclusion space—including financial service providers, policymakers, regulators, investors and donors.

The curriculum provides participants a unique opportunity to learn about the latest theoretical insights and research evidence on key topics in financial access through lectures and case study discussions led by Harvard faculty. Additionally, collaborative group work sessions allow participants to apply the framework to real-world problems faced by their organizations. The curriculum is described in more detail in the attached program brochure.
This series of posts on the CFI blog highlights some of the key insights that past participants gained from the program and keep an eye out for a new series of posts that we will be sharing in the coming months.

Institute for Financial Management & Research (IFMR) has been awarded the Best Institute Serving Social Cause-CSR by ASSOCHAM. The award was presented by the Hon’ble Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Prof. (Dr.) Ram Shankar Katheria at the 9th ASSOCHAM Higher Education Summit 2016 on 17th February, 2016 at Hotel Le-Meridien, New Delhi. On behalf of IFMR, the award was accepted by Mr Krishnan Dharmarajan, Executive Director of IFMR’s Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion.

IFMR’s vision has been to prepare young minds and experienced managers to become competent and socially responsible leaders of corporations and other institutions. At a broader level, IFMR extensively works on community projects through its centres-

As part of our ongoing collaboration with the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, Bangladesh, IFMR LEAD organized a rapid immersion programme on ‘Social Research Methods’ for their research team, which was held in Kolkata during 11th-16th January 2016. The training also served as an exchange programme for researchers from the two teams, replete with discussions on their projects and field experiences.

In November 2015, Shannon Maloney and Thomas van den Aarssen were invited to represent IFMR LEAD at the Greater Mekong Subregion Research Network (GMS-Net) hosted by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) in Phnom Penh to provide feedback on a number of interesting research proposals from across the region (including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and China). In particular, they provided their advise and expertise to a proposed randomized experiment on the impact of vocational training on labour market outcomes among Cambodian young adults. If accepted, the study could be one of the first RCT’s in Cambodia.

Kadambari Anantram and Sabnam Gafoor from the ENCC team at IFMR LEAD presented the key findings from two case studies that are being documented to highlight the need for integrating Environmental and Social Risks Assessments (ESRA) with project financing activities. This was part of the “Workshop on Environmental and Social Risks in Project Financing” hosted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in Mumbai to collect feedback from relevant stakeholders from the financial sector and civil society.

The team presented information on development projects in India wherein 1) ESRA as part of the project’s proposal and its implementation has been neglected and therefore the project developer has faced severe controversies and financial losses and 2) adequate emphasis has been given to ESRA incorporation by both the financing institution and project developer and hence they have successfully commissioned project operations and reaped environmental, social and financial benefits. The scope for furthering the dialogue with the government on providing a legal framework to enforce and regulate ESRA in Indian FIs and development projects was deliberated in this session.

IFMR LEAD recently collaborated with Access Assist as technical partner for the successful Inclusive Finance India Summit – A global platform for deliberating on issues related to financial inclusion, financial education and financial stability, and for building a Financial Inclusion Vision 2020. With an endeavour to inform and influence the pro-poor policies and to strengthen the enabling environment, the summit successfully brought together important stakeholders to discuss key issues and challenges, and build a consensus on the way forward.

The Summit was held on 8th and 9th December, 2015, at Hotel Ashok, New Delhi.

Please find below fact sheets for some of the sessions conducted at the Summit-

IFMR LEAD successfully hosted an ‘FI2020 Week’ event, from November 2-6 2015. The theme of our event was “Re-imagining Financial Inclusion through Technology.” #FI2020 was part of a week-long global dialogue on the most important steps to achieving universal financial inclusion by 2020. The overall coordination of the event was led by The Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI), in Washington, DC.